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From a team of electronic designs consultants

PCB Design Layout

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Printed Circuit Board Layout

Printed Circuit Boards, or PCBs for short, provide a place to solder electronic components onto and to make the hundreds or evens thousands of connections necessary for circuits and designs to function.
The PCB design is also key for signal integrity, noise performance, safety, electromagnetic compatibility, mechanical fit and more.
Good PCB layout is critical to electronics designs properly working, poor layout can be the cause of numerous functional and compliance issues.
However we can help you create a PCB layout that will avoid these issues.
Our PCB layout process

Board outline

Not all PCBs are square or rectangular.
Many of our designs are interesting shapes, created to fit in to the enclosures, make assembly easier or reduce the overall impression of size.
There are cost implications to making odd-shaped boards as they can increase material wastage if the boards do not tesselate when panelised. These cost implications need to be balanced against ease of manufacture, service, repair, form factor and use.
We can help you way up the costs against the look or functionality of your overall electronics design or product.

Signal and power planes – layer stack

The complexity, board area and performance requirements of the product will determine how many copper layers are needed and what they will be used for. There are usually an even number of PCB layers. Often at least one layer is designated as a ground plane, others as signal layers for many interconnections and partial or complete power planes.
Care needs to be taken designing the layer stack to provide good EMC performance, break signals out of high pin count devices, allow impedance needs to be met and to keep copper balanced to minimise board warping during reflow.
We have a lot of experience as an engineering team at giving the care and attention to get a PCB board right.

PCB materials

Beyond deciding on whether the printed circuit board should be rigid, flexi or a combination, flex-rigid, the material selection and layer stack is important. Many PCBs are made from woven fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin, the most common of these is known as FR-4. There are a wide range of grades and thicknesses depending upon the application. High speed and radio PCBs benefit from boards with a tighter fibreglass weave.
For very high-speed electronics there are PTFE or Teflon cores which are more expensive but help to reduce losses.

Track geometries

When schematics are drawn it is useful to indicate which connections have special attributes and to set design rules up for these. This could include simple attributes for high current traces that need to be a minimum width or can be more complex for skew, length matching, characteristic impedances etc.
Those attributes are applied to the PCB as rules which set up trace widths, separations and length checking. These are used when creating tracking, pouring copper planes and for verification checking at the end of the design.

Component placement

Every component from the design needs to be placed on the printed circuit board – ideally on a grid for alignment and manufacturing ease.
Mechanical constraints from connectors, lights, sensors and tall components are placed together with components with complex routing
requirements. This is a balance and feels like a puzzle, rotating and moving components around as well as flipping components onto the opposite side of the board can turn a very complex situation into one that is much clearer and simpler.
Where the same circuit design is repeated a number of times the design tools can allow you to replicate the component placement and tracking to save time and minimise the opportunities for error.

Tracking and Vias

PCB design tools allow connections to be made between components which span multiple layers of the printed circuit board. Individual layers are typically colour coded for clarity and are viewed by looking through the top of the board.
Where connections change layers for example to cross over, to break out of a high pin count device, or for other reasons a via is used. Vias are copper pads in the pcb which have a drill- hole between them and which are electroplated to electrically join them. In high density boards it is possible to use blind and buried vias which don’t traverse the full PCB depth to make use of more of the PCB area. This increases cost but helps squeeze designs into smaller areas. Vias can be different diameters and need to be considered for current, impedance and manufacturability.

Thermal management

Electronics produce heat. Many components incorporate a thermal pad, often connected to ground, which is used to thermally conduct heat out of
the device. Copper areas in the PCB can act as heat spreaders to distribute the heat over a wider area and so act as a heatsink.
Care needs to be taken to ensure that this heat distribution, and the placement of other heat generating components doesn’t cause other devices to heat up beyond their specification to avoid premature component failures and incorrect operation.
It is also worthwhile testing products in environmental test chambers if you are worried about heat, cold, humidity or temperature fluctuations. We have 2 environmental chambers on-site at Ignys on Nottingham Science Park.

Test and programming access

Many modern components have a high pin count and density which can make debug and test challenging. Small areas of bare copper, known as test points, can be left exposed (and if space allows labelled for ease of identification) to give access to key circuit parts. This could include power supply rails, sensor outputs, programming connections, serial interconnection busses such as I2C, SPI and USB.
The test points add no cost to the PCB and can be invaluable in development and also later in volume production. Fully populated printed circuit boards, with components soldered into place, can use a test fixture as a quality control measure and to program and calibrate units automatically and repeatably.

Silkscreen

PCBs can have up to two silkscreen layers. These are non-conductive text, markings, warnings and identification labels that can assist during assembly, test and installation.
Common uses of silkscreen are to indicate the polarity of components such as diodes and capacitors, indicate the pin 1 reference on ICs, identify test points, show the PCB part and revision number, provide warning symbols for high-voltage, ESD care, and to label each terminal on a connector that is manually wired to the board.

Design Rule Checking

Design rule checking is used to confirm that the manual placement of components, tracks and planes and the more complex attributes for high speed or high-power tracks meet the rules. This can include track length matching and maximum lengths, trace widths and a very simple but important check that all of the connections have been made.
As with other rule-based approaches this relies heavily on the rules being set up correctly in the first place.
We can help you set up these rules.
For product success

PCB Dimensions

The specification, size, shape and materials used for a PCB are dictated by its function and performance needs. PCBs are often viewed as a simple item to connect components together. The PCB can make or break a design, reduce the wireless connectivity range, increase sensor noise, bring EMC compliance failures and more.
PCBs are a vital part of the electronics in your system and the success of your product.
Ignys Ltd are members of Altium Service Bureau 

Service bureaus are independent service providers that use Altium products and solutions.

Clients we've helped

Case studies from Ignys Ltd

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When Build Test Solutions Borrowed an Engineer
Savings Delivered by borrowing an Engineer
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Electronics design for multimedia device
Fabrikat Product Development Case Study
When Build Test Solutions Borrowed an Engineer
Savings Delivered by borrowing an Engineer
Low power temperature, humidity and 3-phase mains current sensing
Smart Home Technology
Electronics design for multimedia device
Fabrikat Product Development Case Study
When Build Test Solutions Borrowed an Engineer
Savings Delivered by borrowing an Engineer
Low power temperature, humidity and 3-phase mains current sensing
Smart Home Technology
Electronics design for multimedia device
Fabrikat Product Development Case Study
When Build Test Solutions Borrowed an Engineer
Savings Delivered by borrowing an Engineer
Low power temperature, humidity and 3-phase mains current sensing
Smart Home Technology
Electronics design for multimedia device
Fabrikat Product Development Case Study
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